LG&E Energy

Louisville Gas and Electric (LG&E Energy) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of E.ON U.S. LLC, a diversified energy services company that is a member of the E.ON AG family of companies. E.ON is the world's largest investor-owned utility company. LG&E is a regulated electric and natural gas utility, based in Louisville, Kentucky, serving Louisville and 16 surrounding counties.

In June 2010, Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) announced plans to buy two Kentucky utilities for $7.6 billion from German power company E.ON AG: Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, giving PPL an additional 1.2 million customers.

Existing Coal Plants
LG&E operates the following coal-fired power stations:

Proposed Coal plants
LG&E has proposed the construction of an additional coal-fired unit at the Trimble power station: Trimble County Generating Station 2. The new plant (Unit 2) would burn Illinois Basin high sulfur bituminous coal and would be built by Bechtel Power. It received a $125 million tax credit from the federal government’s 2005 EPACT Qualifying Advanced Coal Program. In Sept. 2007, the Sierra Club reported that the Trimble air permit had gone back to the draft stage. In Fall 2008, the Federal EPA supported the legal challenge that Kentucky violated the Clean Air Act in issuing state permits to the Trimble coal plant and now state officials in Kentucky must “correct” the permit to be more restrictive.

Proposed coal unit closures
According to long-range planning documents filed in mid-April 2011 with the Public Service Commission, LG&E Energy and Kentucky Utilities Company are making initial plans to retire coal-burning units at three aging power plants by 2016, including the Cane Run Station in western Louisville, KU's Green River Generating Station in Central City in Western Kentucky, and KU's Tyrone Generating Station in Versailles, which has already been mothballed temporarily. A PPL spokeswoman for the two companies, Chris Whelan, said: “This is not a final decision," calling the planning document “a snapshot in time” to keep state regulators up to speed on the company's long-range thinking. In the utilities' latest joint Integrated Resource Plan, updated every three years and made public by the PSC on April 22, 2011, the companies' experts call for adding three times as much electricity-generating capacity from natural gas as the utilities retire from coal. They say the new power mix is what will be needed to keep their rates as low as possible amid tightening environmental regulations, even as electricity demand grows. In all, 979 megawatts of coal-burning capacity would be retired in 2016, while the two utilities would add 2,721 megawatts from natural gas — though it's not clear yet where the new gas turbines would be. The utilities currently produce about 8,000 megawatts of electricity.

On EPA list of 44 "high hazard" coal ash dumps
In response to demands from environmentalists as well as Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California), chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, the EPA made public a list of 44 "high hazard potential" coal waste dumps. The rating applies to sites at which a dam failure would most likely cause loss of human life, but does not include an assessment of the likelihood of such an event. Kentucky has 6 sites, all of which are owned by E.ON subsidiaries.

LG&E's Cane Run Station was included in the EPA's official list of Coal Combustion Residue (CCR) Surface Impoundments with High Hazard Potential Ratings. To see the full list of sites, see Coal waste.

History
"In 1838, investors formed Louisville Gas and Water to provide gas-fired street lighting mandated by Louisville's city fathers to deter crime. The company sold gas from its local coal plant to fuel the gaslights. In 1842, the company dropped plans to build a waterworks and changed its name to Louisville Gas. In 1890, Louisville Gas amended its charter to buy stock in electric companies, and it acquired control of Louisville Electric Light. In 1913, through the merger of Louisville Gas, Louisville Lighting (founded in 1903) and Kentucky Heating, Louisville Gas and Electric (LG&E) was formed."

"In 1989, the firm founded LG&E Energy Corp. In 1998, LG&E Energy acquired KU Energy, which owned neighboring utility, Kentucky Utilities Company, and it entered into a 25-year lease of Big Rivers Electric's generating facilities. These two transactions more than doubled the size of LG&E Energy."

"UK-based Powergen bought LG&E Energy in 2000, and in 2001, Powergen agreed to be acquired by Germany's E.ON. The deal was completed in 2002. In 2003, E.ON transferred LG&E Energy from Powergen to another subsidiary, E.ON US Holdings."

Contact Details
Website: http://www.eon-us.com/lge/default.asp

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